Optimize waiting time in museums and cultural centers

Museums and other cultural centers attract a large number of visitors throughout the year, often reaching peak attendance during special events such as Heritage Day, private viewing, or temporary exhibitions. These volatile crowds can result in long queues that discourage some, frustrate others, and waste everyone’s time. Optimizing waiting times and enhancing visitor reception are challenges to which ESII can provide solutions.

A multitude of reception modes

One of the challenges of optimizing reception in tourist sites is the multitude of reception modes that exist. Most of the site currently use:

the traditional tickets sales on location (at ticket offices or ticket machines),
remote tickets sales (Online, supermarket chains, etc.),
free tickets (children, students, etc.),
passes (Paris Museum Pass for instance).

Thus, it is necessary to take into account all these reception modes at the same time.

As for the visitors, they come from diverse backgrounds and have different expectations (foreign tourists, groups, families, people with disabilities, etc.), each of them need to be managed simultaneously.

To increase the number of visitors while offering a better visitor experience, it would be appropriate to:

Decrease waiting lines outside the facility.
Improve the flow of arrivals by spreading them out over time.
Welcome spontaneous visitors within the flow of scheduled visitors.
Welcome each visitor according to their specific needs and preferences.

Adapted solutions

Avec Orion, la soliton de gestion de l’accueil en mode SaaS, la gestion des visiteurs se rendant à la billetterie ou entrant dans l’exposition se fait intelligemment qu’ils aient un ticket, qu’ils viennent spontanément ou qu’ils aient un profil prioritaire (PME, femme enceinte…). Ils entrent dans le même système afin de leur offrir un accueil sans attente, fluide et omnicanal.

With Orion, the SaaS-based reception management solution, the management of visitors going to the ticket office or entering the exhibition is handled intelligently, whether they have a ticket, come spontaneously, or have a priority profile (e.g., disable, pregnant women, etc.). They all enter the same system to provide them with a seamless, efficient, and omnichannel reception experience without any waiting.

Spread out the arrivals over time

Appointment making and digital ticket

Visitors who wish to plan in advance can schedule an appointment online directly on the establishment’s website.

The solution also offers the option to obtain a virtual ticket on their smartphone for the same day, allowing them to secure a place in the existing queue. A guaranteed time slot is provided, enabling the visitor to arrive at an exact time without the need to wait on-site.

These two solutions allow to:

Schedule visitor arrivals in advance.
Spread visitors over time.
Avoid peak periods.

Reception of spontaneous visitors

Self-service kiosk reception

For spontaneous visitors,reception with an interactive kiosk will allow to print paper ticket (for a conventional wait in the lobby), or a text message ticket that gives them the option to wait elsewhere (e.g., at the shop) they will be notified to proceed to the counter through a second SMS.

Reception of spontaneous visitors

Reception with a connected ticket

With the connected ticket solution Weasy™, the visitor takes a connected card at the reception. He can see he average waiting times and are free to wait wherever he chooses. When it’s his turn, the Weasy™ device vibrates and rings to indicate the counter that is calling him.

The Weasy™ also works for guided tours: visitors wait for the tour to begin with a Weasy™ device in hand. To notify them of the start and invite them to return to the entrance, the Weasy™ device vibrates, rings, and displays a message on its screen.

Reducing waiting times

eZQ™ single line queue

It is also possible to speed up the waiting line thanks to an automatic single line queue solution. With this solution the process is 30 % faster, the reception staff better managed and it enables to have more people at the desks: customers are detected and directed automatically to free desks.